The federal government is now officially involved in the pushback against North Carolina’s law discriminating against LGBT folk. On May 4, the U.S. Justice Department informed Governor Pat McCrory’s office in writing that the law violates the country’s Civil Rights Act, and that they had until Monday to agree to comply with it. Well, Monday has rolled around, and North Carolina responded by suing the federal government.
So, the federal government is suing North Carolina back (like a game of tag, but with higher stakes). According to the Huffington Post, the Obama administration said that the law “stigmatizes and singles out” a population that has already experienced so much discrimination.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in particular had a lot to say about this law, stating that it was about issues bigger than who can use which bathrooms, and was of a piece with other historic discrimination, like Jim Crow and the fact that gay people recently couldn’t get married in many parts of the United States. She talks about HB2 as part of the backlash of granting the right of marriage to LGBT people:
“That right, of course, is now recognized as a guarantee embedded in our Constitution, and in the wake of that historic triumph, we have seen bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community,” she went on. “Some of these responses reflect a recognizably human fear of the unknown, and a discomfort with the uncertainty of change. But this is not a time to act out of fear. This is a time to summon our national virtues of inclusivity, diversity, compassion and open-mindedness.”
Lynch herself is from North Carolina.
(Via Huffington Post)